Stuck In Reverse

Saturn Lewis the typical teenage girl with a dream.
Her dream was to grow old with her husband surrounded by her grandchildren.
A silly dream that could never be fulfilled.You see Saturn was dying.
Luke Hemmings was very misinterpreted.
He wasn’t safe to be around and so he was stuck inside a hospital.
No one talked to him, and no one was allowed to.Luke was alone.
Sometimes the lonely and the dying have to ban together,
And sometimes the misconceived and the vanishing have a role to play too,
And sometimes the broken and the perishing have a story,
This is ours.
“I can lay here and get on with dying, or I can get up and get on with living.”

3. three; luke

“Saturn!? Saturn where are you!?” the frantic voice of Jacki startled me, Luke looked at me with a cold gaze, he raised an eyebrow. “Er…can I hide in your room?”

“So your name is Saturn?” he asked, this was completely beside the point. I could tell he was taunting me but, I didn’t really care to be honest. I was way too worried about getting caught. “Yeah, sorry Jupiter was taken.” This wasn’t the first time I had been taunted by my name and I constantly made lots of planet related jokes. “I need your help.” Luke gave a curt nod, something about his demeanor changed completely. He opened the door for me to slip in, my arm brushed his shoulder lightly, and it sent my heart racing.

“You can hide in the closet, it’s really dark in there, don’t be scared.” He said, something about his voice was soothing, maybe it was the cold glare he was giving me or the way his voice cracked as he spoke to me with his neutral tone.

Luke wasn’t anything to be scared of. He was a boy with the blue eyes and blonde hair, but that was it, he was just a boy.

I nodded, as Luke opened the closet door. I quickly shuffled inside of the closet, he was right, it was dark. Are eyes locked for a moment before he shut the door, leaving me completely alone in the darkness.

Knock Knock Knock

“Hey, er uhm Lucas? Have you seen Saturn?” It was Jacki, I could distinguish her voice from everyone else’s. It was soft and melodic, a voice you never got tired of hearing, and she sounded especially out of place considering she had a British accent.

“What does she look like?” Luke asked playing along, his voice was cold, distant. Something I’ve never heard before, something filled with so much hate, maybe it was because he had grown to hate the hospital help. Maybe that’s why everyone thought he was so evil, or disruptive.

“About this tall, erm, red hair.” I guessed that Jacki was shuffling her feet, fighting hard not to make eye contact, that’s what she did when she was nervous, I had spent lots of time with her and by now I have picked up on all of her habits.

“Does she have blue eyes?” I heard Luke ask suspiciously. Jacki didn’t respond so it only left me to guess that she nodded her head. “Nope, never seen her.”

Wow, that’s not conspicuous at all Lucas.

I bite my lip, to keep myself from retorting out loud. I heard the door shut and after a brief moment Luke opened the closet door. “Thanks.”

He gave a curt nod, “So, Lucas is your full name?” I asked teasingly. He looked at me confused, “What did you think Luke was short for?” A smile replaced my lips, I think it was the fact that Luke was so hopeless. To be fair he probably hasn’t seen another teenager his age in a while.

“It was a joke Luke, remember, what those are like? You say something humorous and then everyone laughs, or if you’re witty enough to have a comeback then you have a chance to change the joke.” I said only half-kidding. “Sorry, it’s been a while.” He shrugged.

“So why is everyone so afraid of you?” I asked casually, turning the conversation topic in a different direction. Luke tensed up and I could tell he was rather uncomfortable. “Sorry.” I muttered awkwardly looking at my feet.

“It’s fine. Of course you would want to know why I am like the way I am, sorry. I just I think you should go.” Luke said his eyes darting around the room, making sure not to make eye contact with me. I nodded, knowing that I had messed up.

I knew little about Luke, just the fact that his name was Luke and he was pretty mean to everyone and tensed when you asked a personal question. That was all I could gather from what little I had seen of this boy. I could be smart, and I could go back to my room and forget about him. Pretend he didn’t exist. It was obvious that he wasn’t going to be my friend like that. I couldn’t play the dying card – not that I would – and I certainly couldn’t complain about my living circumstances.

Becoming his friend would stir up lots of drama and cause a lot of problems. Problems I really didn’t have time for, but it all depended on one question, Was Luke worth it? Was he really worth losing my mind over? That was the question.

I walked to Luke’s door, I took one last look at Luke, and he was sitting on his bed his face starring at something he was holding in his hands, it was obvious he didn’t know I was still here. He let out a strangled sigh that for some reason made my heart ache, that was a cry of pain. Pain so raw and deep the pain that you couldn’t ignore.

He was looking at a picture, it was a Polaroid picture, what the picture was, I didn’t know. But I knew that it had caused Luke emotional agony to even look at that picture.

There was something special about that, in a weird way, sometimes being hurt in such a raw emotional way, showing vulnerability that was painful to watch, it showed the one single fact that he was human. He was also alone, something no one should ever be.

And in that moment, that one moment I had seen such a strong boy wailing over a picture – a moment frozen in time forever – I had made up my mid. Luke was alone, and he needed someone. Sure he might cause trouble but being alone sucked. This boy – Luke – was worth fighting for.